24 



On the history of the Burmah Mace. 



[No. l, 



physiognomy is essentially Indo-Chinese, and their speech connects 

 them with the same family. In every Indo-Chinese tribe, occasional 

 exceptions to the general flat physiognomy are met with. These 

 are almost always among the men. The women have more frequently 

 the true type of Mongolian or Bhotiya face. 



Such tribes as the Burmese, the Karens and the Mon would readily 

 find their way from central Asia by the courses of the rivers Salween 

 and Mee-nam towards the south. Some would be led westerly, and 

 so gain the valley of the Irrawaddy in the upper course of that river. 

 This, the Talaings and Burmese probably did at an early period * 

 while the Karens kept for ages to the mountains bordering east and 

 west of the Salween and Mee-nam rivers, and only lately came into the 

 Irrawaddy valley and along the mountains bordering the sea-coast as 

 far as the 12° N. L. They may be classed in three great divisions 

 having numerous tribes and dialects, but all possessing the same cha- 

 racteristics as far as they have been observed, up to the 20th degree of 

 north latitude. 



It has already been mentioned that the people called by Europeans 

 Burman or Burmese, called themselves Mr cm-ma, a name which is 

 generally pronounced by them Ba-md. This word, as has also been 

 stated, is of foreign origin. From the history we learn that at an 

 early period there were three tribes in the valley of the Irrawaddy, 

 who appear to have been the progenitors of the present nation. These 



# Mr. J. E. Logan remarks upon this subject as follows : 



" The present position of the Mon-Anam nations might lead us to suppose that 

 they moved into Ultra-India, and thence into India. But the relation of the 

 Mon-Anam to the Vindyan dialects shows, that the Dravirian traits of the 

 former were wholly or chiefly acquired in Bengal, and renders it probable that 

 they did not reach the south by the basin of the Irrawaddy, but by that of the 

 lsang-po_ Brahmaputra, like the later Tibeto-Burman tribes. How far Ultra-India 

 was then inhabited, and what languages were there spoken, cannot therefore be as- 

 certained from the character of the Mon-Anam languages." Again. " The Simang 

 and Anda-mamm are the purest remnants of a pre-Himalaic colony, and it is pro- 

 bable that similar Draviro-Australian tribes occupied it, so far as it was inhabited, 

 before the Mon-Anam race entered the region." Journal, Indian Arch. pp. 156, 157. 

 Among the traditions of the Mran-ma race in Arakan, are traces of the existence of 

 ahatetuf race of men, which existed on the sea coast, when the Mran-mas entered 

 tne country. _ lhey are called in the vernacular Bee-loo which implies a monster, 

 or cannibal, in human shape. It is from these beings that the country received its 



f^LTJV n !t h<hik and hence its P resent nam e Ra-khaing. Rek-khaik 

 appears to have the same general signification as the vernacular Bee-loo. The 

 wpI «S? ?if mg 8 T ent ° the co ^ry would seem to show that some Bee-loos 

 were still there when the Budhist . missionaries entered Arakan. The word 

 TwTarTnT* *^ Q \ ^ enerall J ™ Popular meaning to the English Ogre. 

 There are no traces of the Mon people ever having passed through Arakan. 



